The fourth estate and the fifth branch: the news media, GM risk, and democracy in Australia

摘要

Australian authorities have approved genetically modified (GM) food and crops despite persistent public ambivalence towards the technology. This action has been legitimated in part by dismissing public concerns as having no basis in "sound science". Such an approach to governance is undemocratic because it uses unacknowledged value-laden assumptions that, among other things, neglect attention to intractable uncertainty around technological impacts. This paper explores the degree to which journalists can help expose these assumptions, open up democratic debate about them, and stimulate more accountable use of science. It uses empirical evidence to explore coverage of the GM debate in Australia, and the constraints on journalists in facilitating critical engagement with the views of scientific power elites in such technological risk debates. Some trajectories for how journalism may better facilitate civic debate on technological futures are then canvassed.